Strength as Our Day by Methodist Recorder

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 2, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 46.

Strength as Our Day.

By Methodist Recorder

THIS life to the Christian, as well as to others, is a life of trial and affliction. All men are born to trouble. It is the common inheritance of the race. There are no exceptions. The history of the world is the history of suffering and sorrow. All down the ages tears have unbidden started from weeping eyes, and sighs have risen from burdened hearts throbbing with pain. And such will no doubt continue to be the case until the effects of sin are entirely removed, and God shall make all things new.

No condition in life is exempt from trial. The blight of sin has been felt everywhere, and its touch brings sorrow. There are certain trials and afflictions which are common to all alike; it matters not what their condition in life may be. All men must endure pain, suffering, and death. Then, there are trials peculiar to our particular lot in life. Every condition and station in life has trials peculiar to itself. They may be different in kind, but not, on that account, less difficult to endure. We often imagine that if we were placed in other circumstances, if we had different surroundings, if we could engage in different pursuits, that we would be free from care. This is a vain imagination. There are no circumstances in which we could be placed; there are no pursuits in which we could engage, that would exempt us from trial. A change in our condition in life might free us from trial in one form, but it would only, perhaps, be to bring greater trial in some other form. The poor have their trials, which often appear difficult to bear, but so have the rich. Men in private life have their cares, their trials, and their difficulties, but men in official stations have far greater burdens to bear, and far greater trials to endure. A change in our circumstances or condition in life, instead of freeing us from trial, would only change its form.

While the Christian is called to endure, in a greater or less degree, all the trials and afflictions common to men, he is subject to oppositions and trials peculiar to him as a Christian, and which are unknown to others. He is continually exposed to temptation, which he must resist, and by constant effort endeavor to keep his own soul in the love of God. He is opposed by the world, whose spirit, maxims, and evil practices he must withstand and overcome; and, then he must labor for the overthrow of every form of vice, and the extension and triumph of the cause of truth and righteousness in the earth. He is in conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is engaged in a great spiritual warfare, and the trials of this conflict are added to those to which he is subject in common with all others. While looking at the Christian's condition it appears to be one of peculiar hardship and difficulty. Instead of his religion freeing him from trial, it appears only to increase the burdens he is required to bear, and to render his condition still more intolerable.

This is only apparently but not really the case. It is not the weight of the burden laid upon a man that is alone to be considered, but his strength to bear it. What would crush one man to the earth may appear light to another. It is the proportion between a man's burden and his strength that makes it appear light or heavy to him. The burden may be increased, but if strength is increased in proportion, it will not appear any heavier, or be any more difficult to bear than it was before. This is the source of the Christian's consolation. God has promised that his grace, it matters not what the trials and afflictions that he is called to endure, shall be sufficient for him; and that as his day, so shall his strength be.

It is not the trials alone that the Christian is called to endure in common with others, or those additional trials that are peculiar to himself, that are to be considered in forming a correct estimate of his true condition, but the divine strength that God imparts to enable him to bear them. This strength shall be as his day—proportioned to his trial—and shall be imparted as it is needed in life's great conflict.

This is all that the Christian can require to sustain his faith and hope. He does not know what trials, afflictions, and sorrows are before him; he does not know how rough and thorny the path he may be required to tread; he does not know how fierce the enemies that shall be permitted to assail him; but this he knows, and this is enough for him to know, that when the day of trial comes, then, as his day, so shall his strength be. He knows that in great trials he will receive great grace. He may be required to bear a giant's load, but if so, a giant's strength will be given him. God's strength shall be made known in his weakness, for God will strengthen him with might by his Spirit to do his will. The Christian need have no fears for the future. He cannot penetrate it, it is true, but he knows that God is faithful, who has promised, and that he will sustain and deliver him by his grace.—Methodist Recorder.